Eat your way around New Zealand

This country is an alphabet of locally sourced foods, mouth-watering regional dishes and epic dare-to-try challenges you’d be a foodie fool to miss. Check out some of these excellent suggestions from the guys that know best, YHA New Zealand.

Get to market in Christchurch:

A heritage homestead backdrops the weekly Christchurch Farmer’s Market. The market offers visitors the chance to talk to the folk who sow, grow, brew and whip up the honest to goodness, 100% NZ made fruit, veggies, breads, cheeses, coffees, meats and sweet treats.

Jaunt harbourside in the port town of Lyttelton for the Lyttelton Farmer’s Market, an institution of all things straight-from-the-local-farms-and-boats since 2005. Once you’ve purchased your kale and Kaiser roll, stroll through the local London Street shops while local musos serenade, every week.

Riccarton Market is largest market of its kind in New Zealand with over 300 stall-holders hawking their wares on the racecourse grounds. From fresh fruit to second-hand goodies, furniture, clothes, plants, trees and whatsoever your heart desires – this market is bound to have it.

Celebrate the sea at Kaikoura Seafest

Love seafood? Then Kaikoura should be on your radar. The ocean around the coastal town heaves with the delicacies from the deep and the annual Kaikoura Seafest cooks it all up for a scrumptious celebration. Tuck in to baby octopus, paua (abalone), whitebait, Crayfish (lobster) and a range of fish and wash it down with regional wine and quality beer. Seafest kicks off Friday night with a Big Top bash and gets into full swing on Saturday. Dress up for the best dressed costume competition.

Enjoy Wellington on a plate:

Zest Food Tours

Polish your knives and forks for New Zealand’s tastiest culinary festival, Wellington on a plate. Every August foodies flock to the ‘coolest little capital in the world’ for 17 days of indulgent and mouth-watering events from pretzel-making to artisan baking to banquets, blind dining and symphonic feasts, hands-on cooking to day trips and a pig on a spit. DINE Wellington is the festival centrepiece, a fortnight where the region’s finest 98 eateries offer lunchtime set menus and dinner deals. Bon appetit!

Stomach the Wildfoods festival at Hokitika:

You’ve really got to be a food lover to stomach what’s on offer at the Hokitika Wildfoods festival, held in March on the West Coast of the South Island. The adventurous festival is aimed at sustainability and getting people to try things they normally wouldn’t. 15,000 visitors feast on everything from cow’s placenta pate to barbequed Huhu bugs and wildberry ice cream with cicada topping.

Eat to impress mother earth at The Conscious Kitchen:

Escape to the north island’s beautiful west coast whilst being kind to your tummy and the environment at YHA Raglan Solscape. These guys run the Conscious Kitchen and Café, serving whole foods without a face or a mother. Producing their plant-based, organic cuisine from April through to November, you can stay in a recycled railway carriage or a teepee for an unforgettable dining and sleeping experience.

Words by: Brindi Joy

Got any nourishing recommendations for us around your home country? Scroll down to send us a comment.